Saturday, March 22, 2014

Earth's Mightiest Hero

Now that we're finally--finally!--done with Winter and we've formally welcomed Spring, I'm afraid I'm one of those who have a house to tend to and outdoor chores to take care of. This Winter has been a brutal one, hasn't it? I couldn't be more glad to kick it to the curb. But now there are weeds to pull, leaves to rake, garden equipment to check out, crowds to navigate around at home gardening centers, and bedding to lay down around the shrubs and various plants that are coming out of their long dormancy.

Maybe I should let the guy on the left handle all of it for me. Yeah--Dr. Strange, to whom home chores must be little more than a trifling concern, even if he had a yard or any other home-centered tasks to be concerned with. But sometimes it seems like he takes that attitude with the threats he deals with. That bar fight he so quickly dispensed with has me thinking of all the other cool times he's swept in and just taken care of a foe or a crisis situation with a shrug. Strange has had more than his share of formidable enemies to contend with, no argument; but on the other hand, it's often amusing to see him deal with those opponents who aren't quite up to the task of taking him on. Cyrus Black was one such hapless opponent, even though Black was resourceful at supplementing his power by other means. Let's have a look at a few who weren't so lucky.

The Brotherhood of the Badoon certainly must come to mind, having conquered humanity in the year 3007. They've held onto our planet for eight years, and Earth isn't exactly the first world they've conquered--so who will it be to finally free the human race from its shackles? Why, not the Guardians of the Galaxy, as you might expect, but one lone sorcerer--one who doesn't seem to have any doubt whatsoever that he'll succeed:

I suppose if I could take a starship and place it in orbit, as well as transport it and all aboard to the 31st century without so much as breaking a sweat, I'd be feeling pretty cocky, too. Strange gets a little sidetracked during this adventure with the Defenders and the Guardians, but when he's ready to save the Earth all by himself act he doesn't waste any time.

Wait a minute--is this guy really off to save the planet, as if he were running a minor errand?

WELL, YES.

Liberating 50 million people from captivity by a hostile race--and I'm betting when this is all over and he gets back to his residence in his own time, he'll simply ask Wong for some tea while he sits down with the paper and catches up on basketball scores. But, while Strange may be modest, Jack Norris has eyes like the rest of us:

Heh. "...even if it were within my power." Obviously, it is.

But let's move on. How about the Red Ghost and his super apes? They certainly seem to be giving the likes of the Fantastic Four a good deal of trouble:

But to Dr. Strange, they're just so much trash to take out.

And just wait'll you see who Strange lays out next:

There aren't a lot of guys who can just swoop in, take aim at Galactus, render him catatonic, and call it a day.

Finally, we come to a more prolonged battle, where Chondu the Mystic has taken control of Nighthawk's body and probably intends to make full use of Kyle Richmond's membership at the Playboy Club. But he's not getting far, because he's spotted by another mystic who wants a few words with him. Still, Chondu plans to make a fight of it:

You can almost hear Strange sighing, can't you. "Dear lord, another one I have to humble." And it doesn't get much more humbling than finding yourself thrust into another dimension, with your foe acting like it's just another day at the office:

So Chondu needs a serious boost in self-confidence, which he finds in the form of a drug--which I suppose makes sense, since a motivational speaker apparently wasn't on hand in this dimension:

Of course, with your foe belittling you at every turn and telling you how you just don't cut it as an adversary, I doubt a room full of Oprahs could have done Chondu any good:

Gosh, it seems fitting that Strange ends the battle by choosing to punish Chondu for his ego, after spending the majority of it tapping into his own, eh?